In 2026, for the fourth year running, the Worshipful Company of Turners supported The City Academy, Hackney at the annual Sheriffs’ Challenge award. Mentored once again as their Livery Lead by Liveryman Col Lex Agathangelou, the team performed extremely well in the final heats. Unfortunately, not enough to get them to the grand finale at the Old Bailey but another great effort by the 17-year-olds in the team in an extremely close run competition. This year they delivered with style and professionalism in a game show style presentation that both amused and gave alternative arguments to the posed question.
This year the topic was selected by the Master of the Educators and was:
“Given the rise of AI, should the City of London continue to support human made arts?”
The judging panel assess each team on three criteria:
- Organisation of the team and structure of the material
- Content and knowledge of the subject.
- Presentation skills to engage and inspire the audience.
The event is in two parts:
- Heats: taken place in front of a selection of Livery judges and other schools at Anglia Ruskin University in February
- The Final: held in March at the Old Bailey and judged by the Sheriffs themselves and Old Bailey judges.
The Principle of the Sheriffs’ Challenge is to give teams in London schools, who might otherwise not have such an opportunity, an occasion to develop and practice their public speaking skills in a formal setting. The challenge was started in 2016 and managed by the Worshipful Company of Educators to give students in London schools a chance to hone their public speaking skills. They do this by delivering a team-work presentation, competitively, on a topic relating to the City of London or the business/wider world. Each competing team is sponsored by a Livery Company, which also nominates a ‘Livery Lead’ to coach the team. Participating schools are asked to convene a team of no more than six Year 12 students who will be asked to prepare and deliver an oral argument on the specified subject of no more than 8 minutes.
